WHEELING
WHEELING
(A NEW AND EXCITING GAME FOR CYCLISTS)
THE GAME OF WHEELINGJ. Jacques & Son, London, 1896

This is one of the old all-time
classic English games. The date of the game (1896) comes from Dan Gindling's
"Bicycle Collectibles", though Caroline Goodfellow vaguely adscribes it to the
first decade of the XXth century (see bibliography
here).

As you can see, there
are at least three different editions. The one on the right has chess and halma
boards on the back. The boxed edition is more modern. Though I cannot date it
precisely, I would say it is from the first fifteen years of the XXth century.

If we look closely at
the two bigger boards, we find that although both boards are by J. Jacques & Son, but the printing is
finer on the game on the left. On the other hand, the board in the boxed edition
is smaller and the drawing is much coarser.

There are also (at
least) three
slightly different versions of the rules (see below).

Compare the board sizes.

The game represents a race from
London to the Anchor's pub at Ripley.

In case you did not know, "Ripley
is a village in Surrey, which grew on the main A3 road from London to
Portsmouth. [...] In the 1870s cycling also became a popular activity in the
South of England and Ripley was a convenient distance from London so that many
cyclists would stop there for a break at the Anchor Inn. Sisters Annie and
Harriet Dibble encouraged the cyclists so much that, in some years in the
following decade, their visitors book was signed with over 7000 names - all
arriving on penny-farthings or boneshakers." (That was from the
Wikipedia)

Or else, "Ripley was once a mecca
for cyclists long before the motorist took over. It was far enough down the old
Portsmouth Road for Londoners to be able to ride out, have tea and then return
home. The 'Dibble' sisters dispensed tea for the cyclists and became so popular
in their lifetime that when they died cyclists clubbed together and paid for a
stained glass window in their memory to be placed in the parish church. Annie
and Harriet Dibble were kindly churchgoing souls who ran the Anchor Inn. It was
twenty five miles from the centre of London and the sisters knew exactly how to
cater for ravenous cyclists. Annie died in July 1956 and Harriet fifteen months
later..... with them so did an era." (I found this information
here)

Differences between the two big boards:
the printing is coarser on the game with the Halma/Chess boards on the back (right),
though the drawing is the same

Differences between the
boards: notice the coarser drawing of the fallen cyclist on the smaller (later)
board.

Hyde Park corner only
appears on the later board

I got these tin riders with the chess/halma-backed
board. They look quite like the ones of
J.W.S&S' Cycling

These are the riders included in the boxed version.
Again, coarser.

These are the rules that came with the Halma/Chess-backed
board. (The hand-writing corrections were already there).

These were sent by Neil Bloomfield. I am not sure of
what version of the game they come from.

These were sent by Jerry Mortimore, who has a
boxed set, similar to the one pictured above, but with a grey box.
They are similar in everything to the ones sent by Neil except for the address of the
J.Jacques & Son.
My guess is that this is a newer address, but it is just a guess (anyone can
confirm this point?)

There are a couple of
interesting differences in the first two paragraphs between the first set of
rules and the other two. In the first version:

(a) To enter the game, a
player must throw a six with one die (instead of "1, 3 or 6")

(b) the second
sentence reads "The moves shall be according to the numbers thrown by the dice
or teetotum".

Both the very Victorian teetotum reference and
the fact that you enter the game more easily (three
chances out of six instead of one) make me think that the first version of the
rules is older.

This is confirmed by the revised version of
the rules (included in the red box), which also enters the game with 1, 3 or 6.More precisely, after
throwing 1, 3 or 6, the player "can then pump up his tyres and start with the
number he has thrown". Notice that in all cases the player will fall on a
square with a pump. However, the pump does not play a role in the game (not to
be confused with the "pneumatic outfit" at squares 18 and 20).

Interestingly, in this modern version, we do not
find any longer a "bicyclist" but a "cyclist".

The rest of the rules, as you can see, are similar,
though some points are more clearly explained in the revised version.

Here is another set of rules sent by Jerry Mortimore
(a great Wheeling collector). It belongs to a luxury edition of the game. He
writes: "The board is much thicker than another board I have – 4mm thick instead
of 1mm thick. The board is leather backed and embossed in gold. The playing
pieces, etc, are in a wooden box with a sliding lid. There are four metal
playing pieces, two gentlemen and two ladies." What is interesting here is
the a Jacques & Son games' catalogue, in which we see that there were 5
different versions of the game: 1s, 2s 6d, 3s 6d, 5s and 7s 6d (pre-decimal
coinage, of course). As Jerry remarks, In the 1890s 7/6 was a lot of money,
a week’s wages for a tradesman.

The "Double J Brand"

Bell-Whistle, Lamp and Pneumatic Outfit. Though
refered to as "cards" in the older rules and as "printed slips" in the
revised rules, they are quite similar in both versions of the game and, as you
can see, are better described as "printed slips".

Here are a couple of found pictures with some
elements I do not have: the box and some more lead riders.